30 Proceedings. 



The President welcomed back the members of the expedition to the 

 Kermadec Islands, and expressed a hope that their scientific results would 

 be of the greatest interest and value. 



The following annual report and balance-sheet were adopted : — 



Last year was a notable one in the history of the Institute, as under its auspices, 

 and with the assistance of the Government, the expedition to the subantarctic islands 

 of New Zealand was brought to a successful termination. Tliis year the Council has 

 been specially concerned with making 'arrangements for the publication of the report of 

 the expedition, but other important questions have occupied its attention. The principal 

 of these are as follows ; the carrying-out of experiments in connection with the Arthur's 

 Pass Tunnel, the founding of a library of antarctic literature, the establishment of a 

 Carnegie astronomical observatory in New Zealand, the sending of a scientific party to 

 the Chatham Islands, and the consideration of the more adequate protection of our 

 native fauna. The Council has also taken steps to put its views on the question of the 

 Hector ftlemorial before the committee which has been set up in Wellington to deal with 

 this matter. This committee considers that the memorial should take the form of a 

 scholarship or prize for original work in science, and has approached the Government to 

 secure a subsidy to a fund raised with this object. Your Coiuicil feels that a scheme 

 which follows to some extent the lines laid down for dealing with the Hutton Fund would 

 be a more suitable memorial of Sir James Hector's many-sided services to the cause of 

 science in this country, and it further feels that the projjer way to stimulate research is 

 not to found a scholarship or prize, but to furnish additional opportunities for can-ying 

 on research for its owti sake. The reju-esentati ons of this Council do not seem to have 

 met with any success iip to the present,, but it has the satisfaction of being tlioroughly 

 in accord with the Otago Institute in the matter. 



Visit of Scientific Jixpeditioni). — Duiing the past year Lyttelton has been visited by 

 the magnetic sur^'ey vessel " Galilee," and the interest in antarctic exploration has been 

 further increased by the departure of the S.Y. " Nimrod " with Lieutenant Shackleton's 

 party. In order to show its sympathetic interest in the ex]iedition, the Council of the 

 Institute., in conjunction with, the Board of Governors of the Canterbury College, arranged 

 for a conversazione in the College Hall to entertain the visitors immediately before their 

 departure. The President wished them a successful voyage,, and took the op])ortunity of 

 welcoming back officially the members of the expedition which visited our own sub- 

 antarctic islands. It was a matter of regret afterwards that the " Galilee "arrived one 

 day later, so that the Institute had not an opportunity of paying honour to the officers 

 and scientific staff of the ship on the same occasion. 



Pithlication oj the Beport of the Expedition to the Southern Islands. — The Council 

 considered early in the year the question of publishing the results of the recent expeditiofi 

 to the southern islands. A sub-committee was a])poiirted from the Council itself, and a 

 ■number of gentlemen from various parts of the Dominion — viz,, Drs. Benham and 

 Marshall, Professor Kirk, and Messrs. Hudson and Aston — were requested to act in con- 

 junction with it in order to consider the best means of bringing out what is hoped will 

 be a most valuable report. This committee appointed Dr. Chilton as editor, and re- 

 quested the assistance of a number of ex|)erts to report on the collections that were made. 

 Help has been most willingly given in all quarters, and this promises well for the success 

 of the publication. The Government has been generous in the matter, and has placed 

 on the estimates the sum of £500 as a contribution towards bringing out the report, on 

 .the understanding that the work is done at the Government Printing Oifice, Apart from 

 the question of publication, there were numerous matters in connection with the winding- 

 up of the business of the expedition which the Council had to consider. These have all 

 been satisfactorily arranged, and a balance-sheet of the expedition's accounts, duly 

 audited, is appended to this report. 



Arthur's Pass Tii7inel. — Last year a sub-committee was appointed to consider the 

 question of making such observations on the temperature of the earth's crust and on 

 other geophysical and geological phenomena as the construction of the Arthur's Pass 

 Timnei renders possible. The sub-committee has continued in office, and arrangements 

 for carrying out the experiments have been placed on a satisfactory footing. The Insti- 

 tute has been met by the contractors, Messrs. John McLean and Sons, in a most friendly 

 spirit, and every faciiitj has been afforded for carrying out the experiments under favour- 

 able conditions. Representatives from the committee have visited the tunnel on three 

 occasions, and two borf^s have been made and readings of the tunnel's temperature taken. 

 As these are at no great depth below the surface, the rise in temperature shown is only a 

 few degrees. Until the committee is in a position to determine the mean temperature 

 • of the outer layer of the earth's crust in the locality, little can be said about the results- 

 obtained from internal readings. 



